Author: Joe from MassPrivateI

Voices of Liberty – by Nick Hankoff

Governor Jay Inslee’s desk is the next and final stop for the Washington state bill taking on “Stingray” technology. Stingrays are used in fake cell phone towers that trick mobile devices to connecting with them, revealing personal and tracking information to law enforcement. Police have argued no warrant is necessary.

House Bill 1440 would draw clear distinctions on how and when stingrays can be used. HB1440 also addresses their role in federal mass surveillance. If it becomes law, stingrays won’t be allowed unless certain conditions are met. From the bill’s text:   Continue reading “Will Washington State End ‘Stingray’ Warrantless Surveillance?”

Ars Technica – by Cyrus Farivar

Prosecutors in St. Louis, Missouri, have seemingly allowed four robbery suspects to go free instead of explaining law enforcement’s use of a stingray in court proceedings.

The St. Louis case provides yet another real-world example where prosecutors have preferred to drop charges instead of fully disclose how the devices, also known as cell-site simulators, work in the real world. Last year, prosecutors in Baltimore did the same thing during a robbery trial.   Continue reading “Prosecutors drop robbery case to preserve stingray secrecy in St. Louis”

KHOU 11 News – by Adam Bennett

The Harris County Precinct 1 Constable’s Office is doing something that no other agency in Harris County is believed to have done yet: Use drones to help fight crime.

It’s an eye in the sky for law enforcement, without giving up the element of surprise.

“It could absolutely save lives,” says Constable Alan Rosen.

Rosen says the agency’s two new $1,200 drones, which have been in use for three weeks, are game changers in getting intel before serving search warrants, on SWAT situations and even looking for escaped inmates.   Continue reading “Eye in the sky: Local constables using drones to fight crime”

CNN – by Barbara Starr and Wesley Bruer

The guard came to Ferguson to support law enforcement officers, whom many community leaders and civil rights activists accused of using excessive force and inflaming an already tense situation in protests that flared sporadically from August through the end of the year.   Continue reading “National Guard Ordered To Consider Americans As ‘Enemy Forces’ And ‘Adversaries’”

First Look – by Jana Winter

Going to Disney World this summer? Don’t laugh excessively with widely open staring eyes — because those behavior indicators could identify you as a potential terrorist. Packing a Mickey Mouse costume? Wearing a disguise is another indicator.

Yes, the Transportation Security Administration’s embattled $900 million behavior detection program, called Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques, or SPOT, is not just used at airports. It’s also used at theme parks.   Continue reading “TSA Trained Disney, SeaWorld to Spot Terrorists”

The Newspaper

If a motorist withdraws his consent to a blood test, a police officer may not take it by force under a ruling last week by the Idaho Court of Appeals. A divided three-judge panel decided that the blood evidence used against Brant Lee Eversole should have been suppressed.

Eversole was drunk when a local sheriff’s deputy caught him sitting behind the wheel of a truck in front of a bar. Yet Eversole could not have driven the truck because it was high-sided on a brick berm with the drive wheels lifted off the pavement. Two other men were trying to use a jack to free the vehicle, but they had next to no chance of succeeding. The police officer at the scene called their effort “feeble.” The truck had to be towed away.   Continue reading “Idaho Limits Forced Blood Draws From Motorists”

Infowars – by Kurt Nimmo

In 2009 the federal government said in the now infamous rightwing extremism document leaked to Infowars and others that “veterans possess combat skills and experience that are attractive to rightwing extremists” and that the government was concerned these extremists would “attempt to recruit and radicalize returning veterans in order to boost their violent capabilities.”   Continue reading “Holder’s Gun Ban List Targets Veterans”

Desert Dispatch – by Mike Lamb

BARSTOW — U.S. Marines from the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit from Camp Pendleton conducted a non-combatant evacuation operation training exercise at Robert A. Sessions Memorial Sports Park reportedly at round 3:45 p.m. on Monday.

Staff Sgt. Bobbie Curtis, media communications chief at Camp Pendleton, said the purpose of the exercise was to provide the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit the opportunity to conduct training in unfamiliar environments during the final phase of their pre-deployment program. During the certified exercise, the unit was required to conduct a series of challenging and realistic training events to test their ability to conduct conventional and specialized missions.   Continue reading “Marine unit conducts exercise at sports park – Part of larger traning operation involving sites in California and Arizona”

Chron – by Gilbert Garcia

SAN ANTONIO — Joan Cheever, founder of the nonprofit mobile food truck known as the Chow Train, was cited last Tuesday by San Antonio police officers for feeding the homeless in Maverick Park.

Cheever has been serving restaurant-quality meals to the city’s homeless population for the past 10 years, and has been profiled on Rachel Ray’s cooking show for her charitable efforts.   Continue reading “Chef ticketed, facing $2,000 fine for feeding homeless in San Antonio”

Free Thought Project – by Justin Gardner

In most professions, intelligence and education are desirable qualities. Not so in U.S. police departments, where the brutal, oppressive nature would be threatened by such acts as questioning and thinking.

Informed readers already know that police departments do not hire people with high IQs, as The Free Thought Project previously reported.   Continue reading “How “Just Doing My Job” is Creating and Bolstering a Dystopian Police State”

NBC San Diego – by Samantha Tatro and Omari Fleming

A wheelchair-bound San Diego man is taking on the city’s transit system, saying they stripped him of his freedom, after his transit pass from taken from him because he did not have proper proof of his disability.

31-year-old Joey Canales recorded a video Friday as a Metropolitan Transit System officer took his discounted transit card because he did not have proof of his disability.   Continue reading “Man in Wheelchair Stripped of Transit Pass for Lack of Proof of Disability”

Center for Public Integrity – by Susan Ferriss

Kayleb Moon-Robinson was 11 years old last fall when charges — criminal charges — began piling up at school.

Diagnosed as autistic, Kayleb was being scolded for misbehavior one day and kicked a trash can at Linkhorne Middle School in Lynchburg, Virginia, in the Blue Ridge Mountains. A police officer assigned to the school witnessed the tantrum, and filed a disorderly conduct charge against the sixth grader in juvenile court.   Continue reading “Virginia tops nation in sending students to cops, courts”

Philly Declaration – by Dustin Slaughter

The City of Philadelphia does not want you to know in which neighborhoods the Philadelphia Police Department (PPD) is focusing their use of powerful automatic license plate readers (ALPR), nor do they want disclosed the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of this technology, as they continue to fight a Declaration public records request filed in January with MuckRock News.

City officials argue in their response that every metro driver is under investigation, in an effort to exempt so-called criminal investigatory records from release under PA’s Right-to-Know Act:   Continue reading “In Fighting Disclosure of Philly License Plate Reader Records, Officials Claim Every Driver is ‘Under Investigation’”